Anastasia (The Garden of Forking Paths)
Anastasia, also known as Ana and the Guardian, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the third episode of the seventh season. She is portrayed by guest star Yael Yurman, and co-star Sophia Reid-Gantzert. Anastasia is based on the Evil Stepsisters from the fairytale, "Cinderella", and on the character of the same name from the Disney film Cinderella. She is also based on one of Rapunzel's two children from the fairytale "Rapunzel". History As children, Anastasia and her sister play hide-and-seek in the woods, however, Ivy panics when she cannot find her but eventually reunites with her after spotting a floating lit lantern nearby. Drizella worries they still cannot find their way home, but Anastasia takes her hands and has her close her eyes as she encourages her that they can do it together. When Drizella opens her eyes, she sees a path of lanterns, which guides them home. Some years later, Drizella comes up with the idea to light lanterns and release them into the night sky as a way to guide her and Anastasia's mother back to them. Despite Drizella coming up with the suggestion, she is skeptical anything will come out of it, while Anastasia is the one who releases the lanterns, not wanting to give up hope on their mother just yet. Rapunzel is led by the lanterns to her the family manor, where she happily reunites with Anastasia by giving her a warm embrace and Drizella is all but ignored by her until Marcus appears, shocked to see that his former wife is actually alive. When Cecelia comes out, Marcus explains moving on with his life and having a new blended family as he assumed Rapunzel was dead. While spending an afternoon with her daughters, Rapunzel notices she has run out of tea for them. Anastasia assures her they came to see her and not for the tea, and even asks Drizella to chime in agreement, however, Drizella reluctantly admits she is thirsty. After their father come to fetch them, Rapunzel expresses how her relationship with her daughters are not going well. Marcus insists Anastasia adores her, but Rapunzel is saddened by how distant Drizella is with her, to which Marcus tells her to give her time since Drizella was very little when Rapunzel disappeared. At Drizella's birthday party, Anastasia is present for the celebration, where a jealous Rapunzel overhears Drizella thank Cecelia for her gift and refer to her as "Mother", spurring her into cursing Cecelia's heart, which then forces the woman to run away to protect her loved ones. By the time Anastasia is fourteen years old, and after one year of searching for Cecelia,As stated by Cinderella in "Pretty in Blue", Marcus searched for Cecelia for an entire year before giving up on finding her. Marcus gives up, believing Cecelia no longer loves him and welcomes Rapunzel back into the family. During a snowy day, Anastasia, Drizella, and Ella make a snowman together as Rapunzel and Marcus watch from nearby, with Rapunzel wistfully commenting how much the three girls truly look like sisters. As the couple becomes distracted in their conversation, the snowman's hat is blown away by the wind, prompting Ella to retrieve it, however, Anastasia goes to her stepsister's side upon seeing the ice beneath her is cracking. The girls' combined weight causes the ice to give way, causing them to fall into the water, to which Marcus jumps in to rescue them, but as he is only able to grab one girl, he pulls up Ella first, much to Rapunzel's horror and panic. Anastasia's body is eventually retrieved, though she is already dead. While Rapunzel blames Marcus for her death, Ella blames herself for it. A distraught Rapunzel begs Gothel for help, and Gothel magically preserves her body with one breath left in it. Disappointed that Rapunzel was not pure of heart enough to be the Guardian, Gothel theorizes perhaps someone else in her bloodline is more suitable, like Anastasia, and she reveals her intentions of keeping the girl's body in the tower. Instead, Rapunzel imprisons Gothel in her own tower and vows to Anastasia that she will find a way to revive her someday. While Anastasia remains perfectly preserved in the coffin throughout the years, Drizella grows up missing her and wishing she would come back but with every year that passes, she begins to resent her for taking up all of their mother's love and attention. Years later, Rapunzel, now known as Lady Tremaine, has Anastasia's coffin delivered to her house. Tiana, the leader of a rebellion against Lady Tremaine, learns about this and informs Cinderella, who has joined the rebellion, to see if she knows anything. Although Cinderella immediately recognizes it, she lies to Tiana but sneaks out that night to return to her old home and find out more. Lady Tremaine, expecting her, is standing right in the doorway with the coffin. She briefly taunts Cinderella before deciding to open the coffin, revealing Anastasia's body. She explains to Cinderella how she used magic to preserve Anastasia's body and now needs a heart of true belief to revive her. Having learned that Henry, Cinderella's new ally, possesses the Heart of the Truest Believer, Lady Tremaine blackmails Cinderella into ripping out his heart and bringing it to her, threatening to kill the rest of the rebellion if she does not. Cinderella, not having the heart to hurt Henry, tries to take another person's heart, but Henry's mother Regina talks her out of it in addition to removing the heart ripping ability from her, so Cinderella does not go through with it. Eventually, Drizella grows tired of trying to win Tremaine's affection and learns magic in an attempt to pave a life of freedom for herself, however, she witnesses her mother giving herself the ability to rip out a heart before practicing on Anastasia's body by taking out her heart and putting it back in. Drizella realizes the purity of her own heart, which is now full of belief from learning magic, was intended to be the sacrifice Tremaine needed in order to restore Anastasia. Later, as Tremaine is watching over Anastasia's body, Drizella ensures her mother's plan will never come into fruition by killing someone, therefore darkening her own heart so it can never be used to bring back Anastasia. After foiling her mother's scheme, Drizella talks to Anastasia's body, explaining how, at first, she mourned for her sister's absence but with every year, she suffered having to stand in Anastasia's shadow while Tremaine completely ignored her. Drizella tells Anastasia of her wish for their mother to suffer like she did, however, she knows she is not strong enough to cast the Dark Curse. She then grabs onto her sister's limp hands and wonders out loud if the answer lies with her, but Gothel arrives to persuade her to join her coven instead to obtain all the magic she needs for the curse. }} Later, Ivy locates Anastasia's coffin at her mother's vacation home and brings it to the Witch so they can revive her and steal the magic inside her. However, when they open the coffin, Anastasia's body is not there. Ivy then realizes her mother must have moved the body to somewhere else. With Anastasia's body now in a hospital room, Victoria brings her granddaughter Lucy there to show her the reality of her unhappy ending. As Victoria requires Lucy to forfeit her belief in order to resurrect Anastasia, she crushes the girl's dream of her parents' ever reuniting by showing her evidence that her mother Jacinda is no longer interested in being with Henry. She then collects one of Lucy's tears and uses a dropper to use it onto Anastasia, who awakens with a gasp, as elsewhere in Hyperion Heights, Lucy collapses in her Jacinda's arms. Anastasia recognizes Victoria is her mother, and as Victoria joyfully tells her that she brought her back, an upset Ivy watches from outside the room before sauntering off. As Anastasia adjusts to the Land Without Magic by watching cartoons, she and Victoria are visited by Weaver, who gains Victoria's permission to test Anastasia to see if she is the Guardian he is seeking, in exchange for keeping her safe from Gothel and Ivy. Afer Anastasia goes with her mother to the police evidence room, Weaver explains that there is a test to see if she can identify which of the many knives has magic. Anastasia briefly examines them, even picking one up, but does not sense magic in any of them. However, the knives suddenly fly into the air and pierce a nearby cabinet, frightening Anastasia who speculates that the magical knife is in that cabinet. Indeed, Weaver pulls out the Dark One's Dagger from the cabinet, confirming that Anastasia is the Guardian. She is terrified of her powers after what happened with the knives, but Weaver assures her that her magic will help people and that he specifically needs her to help one little girl, Lucy. He has her write down runes, which will cast a spell to save Lucy, but Anastasia begins to panic when she senses Gothel approaching, causing her powers to go haywire. When Gothel arrives, Anastasia lets out a blast of magic, sending Weaver, Victoria, and Gothel flying. Horrified, Anastasia flees, running into the arms of Ivy, who she recognizes as her sister, Drizella, and is surprised to see has grown up. Ivy deceives Anastasia into thinking she is working with Victoria and gives her bracelets made out of vines to dampen her powers. She then escorts Anastasia away under the guise of protecting her from Gothel, but actually takes her to a hideout where Gothel is waiting and reveals just how much she has come to despise her. Anastasia has her hands forcibly grabbed by Ivy, but instead of draining Anastasia's magic as Ivy expected, the reverse happens and Gothel reveals that she has been manipulating Ivy all along. As a heartbroken Ivy is pushed into a pit by Gothel, Anastasia watches before Gothel leads her to another room. There, several cloaks are on display and Gothel informs her that the cloaks belong to her sisters, the Coven of the Eight, and that they will now find the other six members. Near the pit, Anastasia sits at a table eating a dinner meal provided to her by Gothel, who now has plans to take her to her home. Anastasia reasons that she only wants to live with her mother, but Gothel dissuades her from this by pulling Victoria up from the pit and revealing all the terrible things she has done. Of her mother's many crimes, Anastasia learns she poisoned Ella's mother, murdered her father, tried to rip out Drizella's heart, and worst of all, Victoria admits she put Ella's daughter Lucy to sleep in order to revive her. A horrified Anastasia runs off and is later brought to Gothel's home, where she is still lost after learning the truth about her mother and being in a world she doesn't understand. Gothel sympathizes with her feelings as she was once in the same position, particularly in displaying magic early and the fear as well as manipulation she endured from other people because of her abilities. As she tells Anastasia about how she eventually found someone who helped her grow stronger, there is a knock at the door. This scares Anastasia, who causes the table to shake, but Gothel persuades her to calm down and hide in the closet. Anastasia is out of sight just before Rogers enters in to check up on Gothel because Victoria has gone missing and he wanted to make sure she didn't come after her. Rogers becomes suspicious over the food on the table and begins moving towards the closet, but Gothel purposely shatters a teacup to deter him and asks him to walk her to her art therapy class. Anastasia then watches from a gap in the closet as Rogers leaves with Gothel. Later the garden greenhouse, Anastasia is with Gothel when Victoria arrives to hand over the Resurrection Amulet so Lucy can be awoken. Anastasia shirks from her mother at first, but thanks her for helping. Since the amulet is empty, Gothel instructs Anastasia to touch the center so the vessel can be filled with her magic. Anastasia is weakened by the brief draining before Gothel wipes her memory of the incident and commands her to go rest, which she promptly does by leaving the greenhouse. For reasons unexplained, Anastasia disappears, leaving Gothel unsure of where she is. at some point, she is caught on security footage while wandering outside an abandoned restaurant. Weaver, who is searching for Anastasia, receives a photocopy of the snapshot from the Desk Sergeant, who was previously notified of the girl's presence there. Anastasia later sees a lit lantern in the night sky and follows it, eventually finding Ivy is the one who released it in order to attract her attention. She remains wary of her sister and causes a power outage to some nearby lamp posts, but her interest is piqued when Ivy confesses she did bad things because she was scared and lost, but now she has a magic bean that can take both of them home if Anastasia uses her magic to enchant it. Anastasia softens towards Ivy after she admits she needs her sister back, which she too desires. The two reconcile with a hug before Anastasia asks to see the bean so they can go home, but Ivy unfurls her palm to reveal red dust which she blows into her sister's face. As Anastasia realizes she was lied to and quickly succumbs to the dust's sleeping effect on her, Ivy apologizes for betraying her and that while she tried to do the right thing like their mother wanted, she doesn't want to die and has to choose to think about herself over Anastasia. Ivy then brings her sister's body to Samdi, who was the one that persuaded her to trick Anastasia in order to get the magic for the bean. However, Ivy remains unaware Samdi misled her so he could obtain a bit of Anastasia's magic for his own purposes, namely to give it to Roni. Samdi begins finishing the extraction, which involves having to kill Anastasia, but Gothel arrives and wakes the girl up. While Samdi flees, Anastasia brews up a magical storm to demonstrate her anger towards Ivy, whom she believes never cared for her at all. Gothel goads her into killing her sister as retribution, to which Anastasia prepares to do just that by grabbing Samdi's dagger. Ivy owns up to the mistakes she made under Gothel's tutelage but insists she does love and care for Anastasia despite tricking her in the worst way. She reveals Gothel will get Anastasia's magic no matter who is killed, whether herself or Anastasia, but as she no longer wants her fate to be dictated by Gothel, she is willing to die at her sister's hands if necessary. Hearing this, Anastasia comes to her senses and sides with Ivy while Gothel is forced to retreat with her plans failed. Afterward, Weaver and Roni come to find the girls. Weaver checks up on Anastasia while Ivy tells Roni of her plans to go back to the New Enchanted Forest with her sister. Reminiscent of their childhood days, Anastasia has Ivy take her hand as the bean is powered up with magic, allowing a portal to be opened, which they walk into together. }} Magical Abilities Family Victoria Belfrey †|UNK=Unknown}} Jacinda Vidrio|HUS= Henry Mills|SI2=Drizella Ivy Belfrey|SI1='Anastasia'}} ---- Trivia |-|Character Notes= Character Notes *Anastasia is one of very few magicians who can use magic in the Land Without Magic. *During the present events of Season Seven, Anastasia is 14 years old. |-|Production Notes= Production Notes *The casting call describes her as "a happy and selfless lass who loves her sister and step-sister alike".http://tvline.com/2017/10/03/sandra-oh-greys-anatomy-season-14-cristina-returning/ *Interestingly, the name "Anastasia", which comes from the Disney film Cinderella, means "resurrection",http://nameberry.com/babyname/Anastasia which is exactly what happens to the character in the episode "One Little Tear". *The two actresses who play Anastasia's mother pronounce her name differently. Meegan Warner, who plays young Rapunzel Tremaine, pronounces Anastasia's name with a long A sound in the third syllable, while Gabrielle Anwar, who plays adult Rapunzel, pronounces it with a short O sound in the third syllable. Appearances References Category:Female Characters Category:Season Seven Characters Category:Once Upon a Time Characters